ʿĀlamgīr II

Mughal emperor
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Also known as: ʿAzīz-ud-Dīn ʿĀlamgīr II
Quick Facts
In full:
ʿAzīz al-Ḍīn ʿĀlamgīr II
Born:
June 6, 1699, Multan [India]
Died:
Nov. 29, 1759, Delhi (aged 60)
Also Known As:
ʿAzīz-ud-Dīn ʿĀlamgīr II
Title / Office:
emperor (1754-1759), India
House / Dynasty:
Mughal dynasty
Notable Family Members:
son Shah ʿĀlam II

ʿĀlamgīr II (born June 6, 1699, Multan [India]—died Nov. 29, 1759, Delhi) was a Mughal emperor of India who disgraced his reign (1754–59) by his weakness and his disregard for his subjects’ welfare.

A son of the emperor Jahāndār Shah (reigned 1712–13), ʿĀlamgīr was always the puppet of more powerful men and was placed on the throne by the imperial vizier ʿImād al-Mulk Ghāzī al-Dīn, who had deposed his predecessor. Provoked by the vizier’s attempt to reassert control over the Punjab, the Afghan ruler Aḥmad Shah Durrānī had his agents occupy Delhi in January 1757, which was at the time “absolutely without a single defender or caretaker.” After the city was secured, ʿĀlamgīr was confirmed emperor of Hindustan but was in effect Aḥmad Shah’s puppet. Threatened in 1759 with another Afghan invasion and the possibility of ʿĀlamgīr’s being captured and used against him, Ghāzī al-Dīn had the emperor murdered.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Encyclopaedia Britannica.